Nov 8 Bianca B.

This is Bianca. She’s a marketing and communications professional, the mother of three boys and a proud Latina. She’s also a board member and immediate past chair of Con Mi MADRE, a nonprofit organization that empowers young Latinas and their mothers through education and support services that lead them on a successful path toward a college degree.

Con Mi MADRE, which stands for Mothers and Daughters Raising Expectations, annually serves 600-700 young Latinas in Central Texas who predominantly come from low-income backgrounds and will be the first in their family to attend college. Services and support are provided from grade six through college graduation and are at no cost to participants.

Bianca shared some interesting stats: America has slipped from first place to 12th place in degree completion among 36 industrialized nations. For the country to regain top ranking, Latinos will need to earn 5.5 million more degrees by 2020. According to one article, "The projections for 2020 put Latinos at 25 percent of the American population aged 18 to 29 years old. At the same time...we also see that competitive jobs in the U.S. will increasingly require post-secondary education. For these reasons, increasing the number of college graduates overall must focus on improving Hispanic students’ degree-completion rates, or the nation’s goals will never be met."

“I was fortunate to have parents who were college graduates and who had the experience and resources to guide me on a path toward a college degree,” says Bianca. “When I got to college, however, I realized how much of a minority I really was. I'm incredibly proud of the work CMM does to help young Latinas live up to their full potential and achieve their dreams of a college education.”

Know something else about Bianca? Today is her birthday! And her birthday wish is to raise $5,000 to sponsor 5 CMM mother-daughter teams this year. She is matching every gift dollar for dollar until she reaches her goal. What better day than today to support the leaders of tomorrow?